Beauty
by Tijuana Pirate
Summary: Reno, Yuffie. The beauty's in the breakdown. (Based on a line from Cendrillo's 'Haphazard Composition').


Author's notes: My goodness, I came back! Sorry I've been away for so long everyone. I just couldn't stand not writing anymore, school be damned. This is a story that I wrote a little while ago. I really wanted to post it though so here it is. In every story I've ever written, I've kept my own life out of it. This is the exception.

The line "The beauty's in the breakdown" is Cendrillo's, a line from her story Haphazard Composition. If you want to know what it means, ask her. This is what it means to me though.

Beauty

Yuffie snuggled up against Reno. He was warm and she was sleepy. She laid her head against his bare chest and closed her eyes. He was sitting with his back against their headboard, running his fingers through her hair.

"… the beauty's in the breakdown…"

Yuffie stirred against him.

"…hmmm?"

She opened her eyes lazily. Reno smiled at her absently.

"Oh, nothing. Just something Tseng told me once. Ancient wutaian wisdom, ya know?"

Yuffie squinted a little.

"What did he tell you?"

Reno's eyes turned thoughtful again.

"It was… one of the last times I saw him. Can't remember what I asked him but he laughed and said 'Reno, the beauty's in the breakdown'."

"The beauty's in the breakdown…"

Yuffie tested the words on her tongue. They sounded important, but she didn't know why.

"What does it mean?" she asked. Reno shrugged.

"Dunno. He never told me."

Yuffie made a thoughtful noise and lowered her head to his chest again. She kept her eyes open though. She was thinking. Reno was quiet for a while.

"…did you… did you ever see Midgar after Meteor?"

"Hmmm?" Yuffie asked, looking at Reno again.

"Midgar, after Meteor, did you see it?"

"We flew over it, I think. I wasn't really looking."

Reno nodded and was quiet for a while again.

"Reno?" Yuffie asked.

"I… it was…" he paused and looked down at Yuffie. Her deep brown eyes met his impossibly green ones.

"Rude, Elena, and me, we were under the Plate when Meteor came. It was… Fuck, Yuffie, you can't even imagine it…" He trailed off, remembering.

"Nothing we ever did, nothing anyone ever did, could've compared to that. Fucking chaos, everywhere. I got hit by… something… I dunno know what. Maybe a power vein burst or something but it knocked me down. I couldn't move right. Rude and Elena, without them, I never would've made it out... There were people running everywhere, screaming. You'd be going down one street and then suddenly there wasn't a street anymore, just a gaping hole. You'd see people in front of you get fucking _vaporized_ Yuffie, like they never existed. The Plate was falling down piece by piece. Buildings everywhere were collapsing. People trampled over other people trying to get out… I don't remember too much of it but the parts I do... you're lucky you never had to see anything like that Yuff.

The next thing I remember, we were on a hill a mile or so away from city. I didn't see Holy come or any of that but… Shit Yuff, I looked out from that stupid little hill outside of the city and Midgar was still smoking, just an empty ruin. Millions of people died, Yuffie. Millions…

But when I looked at the city… the sun was just coming up and for a second it fucking _glowed_ Yuffie and I swear it was like I'd never seen it before in my life. Fucking beautiful."

Reno trailed off and looked down at his lover again. She had a very thoughtful expression on her face. It was a long time before she lowered her head back to his chest and even longer before she started talking.

"Before we went to fight Sephiroth, Cloud gave us all a chance to leave. To go find our reasons, or something. I didn't really understand why he did it at the time. I mean, we could've all just skipped out on him, right? I left with everyone though, not really sure where I was going. I didn't really have anywhere to go, ya know?

I left Wutai when I was sixteen because I was so damn tired of it. It all seemed so damn… hypocritical to me! Honor, duty, all of it, reduced to fucking _platitudes _for the tourists. But then I'd have these people clamouring at me, talking about my responsibility to the city… So I just left.

When Cloud told us to leave though, I didn't have anywhere else to go. I snuck back into Wutai incognito. It was the middle of the night and nobody saw me come. I decided to climb up Da Chao, the way I had when I was a kid. It was probably pretty stupid of me, climbing the mountain at night, but I didn't care. By the time I made it all the way up, it was almost dawn. I stood at the very top of the mountain and looked out on the city… and Reno, none of it _mattered_ anymore. Not my Dad, not the past, nothing. The city was empty of people but I wasn't just looking at the city. I could see the river and all of the fields… I could even see right to the ocean. Then the sun came up and hit it, and yeah I supposed it glowed. Beautiful, Reno. Just beautiful."

Yuffie too, trailed off in her thoughts. Reno didn't say anything for a long time.

"Walls."

Yuffie's eyes widened. She bolted upright and looked at him.

"What?"

Reno smiled, a deep, peaceful smile lighting his face. It was one she'd never seen him use before. She'd seen him amused, bitter, playful, but never… peaceful.

"Walls, Yuff."

Suddenly it dawned on her and she smiled too.

"Yeah… yeah!"

She grinned madly, as if he'd just handed her some precious gift and he smiled too, leaning forward to kiss her rapturously. They broke apart, grinned at each other madly and then kissed again. When they finally pulled apart, Yuffie leaned forward to rest her head against his. A smile still played at her lips.

"The beauty's in the breakdown," she whispered.


End file.
